Tryphon from Pechenga

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St. Pechenga's Tryphon, Murmansk Museum

The Holy Tryphon of Pechenga ( Russian Преподобный Трифон Печенгский, Кольский ; Finnish Pyhittäjä Trifon Petsamolainen (Kuolalainen) ; Skoltsamisch: Pââ'ss Treeffan ) (* 1495 in Torzhok ; † 13. September 1583 in Pechenga ) was a Russian monk , ascetic and missionary of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Kola Peninsula and in Lapland . He was the founder of the Pechenga monastery and is referred to in church tradition as the "illuminator of the Sami".

Act

Tryphon von Pecheng was born in 1495 as the son of a poor priest in Torzhok ( Novgorod region ) in Russia . He was baptized Mitrophan.

According to legend, he is said to have plundered and murdered in his youth on the border with Karelia as the leader of a band of robbers and was always accompanied by a young, rich woman. He had met her while working as a private tutor at her father's court. In a scuffle in which she wanted to save a young prisoner, however, she was killed by Mitrophan. Plagued by remorse, he renounced his previous life and went on a wandering north. He met the people living there Skolt and established in 1524 a small hut on the banks of Petchenga , a few miles from Munkefjord away to live as a hermit. There he learned the language and culture of the Sami and began his attempts at conversion to Christianity, which initially failed and exposed him to persecution. The hagiography after he had even hide in caves as it is repeatedly persecuted and should be even killed.

Nevertheless, he continued his missionary attempts and was successful, especially since he was supported by the monk Theodoret von Kola , who worked in the Solovetsky monastery . His reputation as a hermit soon spread and many pilgrims added to their visits to the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands to visit the now pious hermit on Pechenga, who had built a chapel next to his hut. Russian sailors also offered their prayers in the chapel.

However, Mitrophan's attempts at proselytizing were initially unsuccessful because he himself was not ordained as a priest and he could therefore not carry out baptisms. 1530 went on a trip to Novgorod in order to get permission from Archbishop Macarius to build a church at the mouth of the Pechenga in the Barents Sea . Only three years later, on February 1, 1533, the new building was consecrated by the priest monk Ilya to become the Church of the Holy Trinity. On the same day Mitrophan was ordained a priest monk and given the name Tryphon.

In the following years Tryphon continued to evangelize the Sami, but also turned his attention to the design of the monastery attached to the church. Because of the oppressive poverty of the monastery, Tryphon traveled to Novgorod and Moscow to raise funds to finance the monastery. Impressed by the founding of the northernmost monastery at that time, Tsar Ivan IV, the Terrible , gave the monastery extensive land and fishing rights in the region. This created the basis for the growth and prosperity of the Petschenga Monastery . It grew and in 1572 already numbered 50 monks and 200 lay people. Today's town of Petschenga was built around the monastery.

In 1589, a few years after Typhon's death, the monastery was destroyed during the invasion of the Swedes, but later rebuilt several times.

With the funds that Tryphon had received from the Tsar, he subsequently founded further churches:

  1. the church in honor of Saints Boris and Gleb on Paatsjoki , south of Kirkenes
  2. those in honor of St. George in today's Neiden and
  3. the Church of St. Mary at the mouth of the Pechenga.

Tryphon von Pechenga died on December 13, 1583 at the age of 88 in Pechenga, after spending almost 60 years of his life there. He was buried in the church that he himself founded with St. Mary.

The orthodox religion that is widespread among the Skolt seeds and other population groups in Finland and Norway goes back to the proselytizing of Tryphon and the Theodoret of Kola .

Adoration of saints

In the Orthodox Church, Tryphon is venerated by Pechenga on December 15th. Likewise, it is customary among devout Russian sailors to worship the Holy Tryphon in moments of danger.

The annual pilgrimage in honor of St. Tryphon from Nellim (Church of the Holy Trinity) to Sevettijärvi and Neiden (St. George's Chapel), which takes place at the end of August, is known to this day.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Venerable Tryphon the Abbot of Pechenga (Kolsk). In: Orthodox Church in America. OCA, accessed November 6, 2017 .
  2. ↑ JA Fries: The monastery of Pechenga. Sketches of Russian Lapland. London 1896, p. 85 .
  3. ^ Trude Pettersen: World's northernmost monastery under construction. Barents Observer, May 24, 2012, accessed November 6, 2017 .
  4. ^ The memory of St. Triphon of Petsamo. Siida website, 2003, accessed November 6, 2017 .
  5. ↑ God is wonderful in his Saints. Orthodox Saints commemorated in December. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
  6. ^ The northern part of Lapland's Orthodox parish. Siida website, 2003, accessed November 6, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Tryphon from Pechenga
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tryphon of Pecheng, saint; Преподобный Трифон Печенгский
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian monk, ascetic and missionary of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Kola Peninsula and in Lapland
DATE OF BIRTH 1495
PLACE OF BIRTH Torzok
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1583
Place of death Pechenga